The Upside to Disorganization

In the past 6 and a half years, and especially in the past 2 and a half years, I've become increasingly disorganized. That time frame is not a coincidence: N-man and B-man are 6.5 years old, and Z-man is 2.5 years old. Some days, I feel like I'm barely hanging in there. On a good day, I'll get done three-quarters of what I *need* to do, and about half of what I want to do. But whatever, I just roll with it.

So, a few weeks ago*, a friend and I went out to Friendly's with our kids. She has three kids as well, so we were two adults with six kids, ages 6, 6, 6, 4, 2, and 2. The kids weren't being bad, exactly. Just a little rowdy. About what you'd expect from 6 kids about to get ice cream.

I joked to my girlfriend that we needed to befriend someone with 4 kids, so we'd have someone whose life was even more crazy than ours. She told me she knew someone who had 4 kids, but this mom had it all together and was super-organized.

I've now decided that there's a big upside to my disorganization: I'm never going to make another mom feel judged! Have trouble cleaning your house? You know what? My house is a mess! Kids running wild? Mine too! Are you totally disorganized? Yep, I'm always a little discombobulated and harried. Need to know you're not alone in the insanity? Oh yeah, I'm right there with you!

I'm going to keep my eye out for those other moms with the stained shirt they probably haven't noticed yet. For half-applied make-up. Whose purse doesn't match their shoes. Whose kids' clothes don't match. These are my tribe. Of course, I'm so busy chasing my three kids in three different directions that I don't have time to notice these things...

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*Case in point: I've been meaning to write this blog entry since we went out to dinner. It's been weeks. But I'm doing it now. I get there...eventually.

Another Awesome Kids' Book

I'm not sure where we picked it up--I'm sure at a used book sale somewhere, but we have a Thomas the Tank Engine Book titled "The Sad Story of Henry".

It's unbelievable, and I think will hold the record for absolute most odd book. The story is about Henry, a train who gets a beautiful new paint job. So he hides in a tunnel so it won't get wet or dirty. They all try to coax him out to do his job, but he's having none of it. Passengers pushed and pulled, but couldn't move Henry. How do you think the book ends? You won't believe it. Seriously, just guess.

Okay, here's the actual text from the last page of the story:

"They took up the old rails, built a wall in front of him, and cut a new tunnel.

Now Henry can't get out, and he watches the trains rushing through the new tunnel. He is very sad because no one will ever see his lovely green paint with red stripes again.

But I think he deserved it, don't you?"

Really. I'm not making that up. Have you ever heard a worse story for children? I think the author needs to work on some serious anger management issues.

Thank goodness this one is cleared up!

N-man had a friend over for a play date yesterday. They were playing with lightsabers, and N-man said, "I'm Darth Vader! Who are you?" His friend replied, "Anakin!"

With great exasperation, N-man said, "You can't be Anakin. Anakin and Darth Vader are the same person. Oh, you be Obi Wan."

Could I be prouder? No.

[To explain, there's something weird going on with kids today. They all love Anakin. They think he's one of the good guys, and sadly he seems to be the most recognizable Star Wars character. This is completely unacceptable to me. First of all, Han Solo is the coolest Star Wars character. Duh! Second, no matter what he did in Episodes I - III, Anakin is still Darth Vader! Why is that so hard for these 5 year olds to grasp? Anyway, I'm raising my boys right.]

What a chicken!

A few days ago, I told my husband that our CSA farm had just gotten some chickens. I mentioned it to let him know that I was going to be heading over there to buy some eggs.

But every time I mention chickens or eggs, my husband gets a crazy, fearful look in his eyes. I know why. He thinks that this time, I'm going to say I want to raise chickens in the backyard.

You know what? I kind of do. Shhh, don't tell TK. I'll break it to him gently. He's kind of a chicken. With three boys, our house is kind of a dude-fest. Maybe next spring I'll add a couple of chicks to the family.

But that's how old he is!

TK got Z-man dressed this morning. When I saw Z-man, I said, "Wow, that shirt is really small!" The arms of the shirt were nearly up to his elbows and it was straining across his tummy. I mean, it was a REALLY small shirt.

"I know," said TK. "But I checked, and it's size 18 months."

I try not to ever complain when TK helps out with the kids, but sometimes I can't help teasing, and this is one of those times. I don't know if it's his overly literal engineering personality, but this is just so TK, to say, "Hmmm, it doesn't look like this shirt fits. However, clothing size=18m, child age=18m, therefore shirt must fit child."

He's so cute! I'm just so tickled!

Well...

When we moved, we went from city water to well water. Something neither TK nor I were super excited about, but most of the towns we were looking in, that was the only option. Neither of us had well water growing up, so we've been slowly learning about wells since we moved.

We're about to get a crash course.

I'm sure it's not news to anyone to hear there's been lots of flooding throughout New England this past weekend. Half of my friends' facebook status updates have been about flooded basements. While our sump pump has been running CONSTANTLY, and we spent 24 hours with our backup sump pump kicking in (and ringing the backup alarm nonstop), our basement managed to stay dry. Yay!

Then yesterday afternoon I noticed our tap water was coming in slightly discolored. It got worse the more I ran the water trying to clear it. TK changed the water filter...no help there. Parts of our yard are flooded, including the area around our well. While the well is capped, we suspect the well might have flooded. Which means the well might be contaminated. Which means we can't use the water.

TK's taking the day off today. We're going to try to find a hardware store that still has a pump in stock so we can try to pump out the yard near the well. We're going to call the well service company. We're going to get our water tested.

I started researching on google, and I had to stop. It was as bad as relying on Dr. Google when I have a runny nose. I have no idea how bad this is, but I saw on one of the first hits that it can take MONTHS to get the well back to usable condition. I'm trying not to freak out. As I started out saying, we know pretty much nothing about wells, so I'm not even trying to diagnose this one ourselves. Hopefully we'll get okay news about all this...

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So, I already miss running water. No shower today, have to brush teeth with bottled water, can't drink tap water (my main beverage of choice), can't do dishes, can't run laundry. Still can flush the toilet, though, so I guess that's the one good thing since we technically still do have running water.

You'd think, for one minute, "Oh, can't use the water! What a great chance to learn some really great water conservation techniques." Well, you might think that for a minute while you were desperately searching for the upside.

Here, so far, are all of the horrifying anti-green results of the unusable water:

• had to buy gallons of water to use for things like tooth brushing, drinking, washing, and cooking. Me, buying bottled water! Ugh!
  
• had to buy disposable diapers since I can't do laundry for the cloth diapers (yes, if this is a long term problem, I'll have to find a laundromat. Since I have to do diaper laundry every other day, this will be a HUGE drag).
• bought purell to disinfect hands.
• I suspect we'll be eating out more as it's a pain to cook (not to mention, can't wash dishes with this water). I am making corned beef and cabbage tonight, though. Can't keep this Irish-American gal down! I've got it in the slow cooker with Guinness instead of water :)
  
• I'm going to have to go out and buy disposable plates, cups, and silverware. Ick, I hate paper plates. I hate paper cups. I hate plastic forks. But again with the "can't do dishes", we're quickly going to run out of real plates, cups, and dishes.
• I'm going to have to go back to paper napkins and paper towels, because of the "no laundry" thing.
  

Hopefully, we'll find out today if we can at least boil water to use it. My problem now is that besides the worry of the water being unsafe, it's also very dirty. I mean, I can boil it to kill any germs, but that doesn't get rid of the dirt so I still can't use it. Can I? I certainly can't drink it! But even if we could use boiled water to wash dishes, that would be a huge help. Hopefully we'll be able to get a professional out today to service the well and give us some information about all this. And hopefully, the news will be better than I fear. I tend to overworry about things. Fingers crossed that this is one of those times.

For now, I'm trying to cut myself a break about how eco-unfriendly I'm having to be now, and focusing on making the best choices available given the situation. Time to test out the recycled unbleached paper products!
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Anyone know anything about wells? Anyone ever deal with a contaminated well?

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In the "whoa, irony" department, last week's Change the World Wednesday was about using less water, letting the tap only run a trickle. I'd been trying that out this week, until all this happened. It's amazing how much water you can waste just by letting the tap run full speed! So that was a good, easy tip last week to just run it a trickle. Of course now I'm alternating between running the taps full out trying to get the water to clear and keeping them totally turned off...

This week's challenge is:

This week, make use of returnable/reusable containers at the market. If your store takes back bottles (or any other containers), return them. If bulk shopping is available, reuse the bag/container for your next purchase. If you buy veggies and use the store's produce bags, keep the bags and reuse them on your next trip.

I try not to buy drinks that come in returnable containers as they're normally soda and/or single-serving drinks, so I don't often use the store's bottle return. None of our local grocery stores have a bulk section (an annoyance for another post), so I don't get to use any reusable bulk containers.

Veggies and fruit I've written about before. A lot of times, you don't even need a bag at all. I do carry plastic produce bags in my purse to reuse. I also recently got a couple reusable mesh produce bags, which I think is ultimately the way I'll go. Oddly, though, I'm having trouble remembering to bring them with me. I have to get a workable plan in place. I don't know how I can remember my reusable grocery bags and forget the produce bags, but somehow I manage!

Bejeweled Bl-addiction

I play a fair amount of Bejeweled Blitz on facebook. I'm not that good, but with 1 minute games and two kids who like to watch me play, I'd say I get in 5 or 10 games most days.

Well, they're coming out with new features, and I'm finding it SUPER addicting. I mean, I'll play the entire 30 minutes I'm feeding Zach! I'm still not very good, but I've been playing so much, I "see" games in my head as I'm trying to fall asleep.

TK and I had just turned out the lights last night, and I said to him, "Oh no! I just made a mistake on the bejeweled blitz game I'm playing in my head!"

He burst out laughing. He's color-blind, and therefore really can't play Bejeweled Blitz so he doesn't understand the addiction. The only thing I could think to compare it to was tetris. Back in the day, he'd play tetris endlessly so I reminded him how you'd see boards of that in your head after you'd played for a while.

His response, "Yeah, I know what you mean. But I never make mistakes in the boards I play in my head!"

So what's your vote? Is it weird that even in my head, I'm not a great bejeweled blitz player? Or are you still hung up on how weird it is that I'm playing bejeweled in my head as I try to fall asleep?

Fess up...are you a bejeweled blitz fan?

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Green tip for the day:

Use the backs of envelopes you receive to write your shopping lists, or whatever else you need scratch paper for. I've tried to minimize our junk mail and change as many bills as possible to paperless, but it still seems like we get at least one envelope a day. Rather than just recycling them, I figure I can get one more use as a shopping list, or a list of meal ideas for the week, or just as drawing paper for the kids.

Just like those 9 legged octopii

I wouldn't say I'm a particularly big crazy magnet. I've got enough crazy all on my own, thank you very much! But being out with twins does seem to attract a particular kind of crazy.

I was out with all three kids at the supermarket yesterday. It wasn't going great, though mostly in a "everyone is acting nutty but at least not grumpy" kind of way. We had to take a rather extended potty break in the middle of shopping, and when we got out of the bathroom, there was a guy standing there, I'm guessing waiting for his wife who was the poor unfortunate person trapped in the bathroom with my nutty kids talking loudly about their potty-filling abilities.

"They twins?" he asked.

"Yep," I answered, trying to keep the kids moving. And failing miserably as all the Christmas clearance was in a bin right outside the bathroom.

"Have you heard about the octomom?"

"Yes," I answered. I'm in no mood to chat as we've been at the grocery store for approximately 2 days already, but I'm trying not to be rude. It is interesting, though. I think queries about octomom now exceed queries about Jon and Kate plus 8. Are other twin moms finding that as well?

"What'd she have? NINE kids at the same time?" he asked.

"Something like that," I answered in disbelief, wondering to myself why he thought she was called the OCTomom.

He talked more about that, right over my kids who were pointing out every santa hat and glittery thing they could find in the bin.

Then, out of no where, he busts out with some insane political stuff, about how Obama is ruining our country. Seriously, it went on and on. I wanted to ask, "You live in MASSACHUSETTS! Do you pull this crap just hoping to rile the liberals?" But I was finding him so hilarious that I was having trouble not laughing. So I gathered up the kids and hurried on our way, finding this crazy-encounter a little more amusing than just a normal run-of-the-mill, unremarkable nut. Thanks, strange man. Your mixed up, ill-informed insanity actually brightened my day.

Sometimes it's fun to be a crazy-magnet!

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Green tip for the day: I'll go with something grocery related since my post was about grocery shopping. Figure out a way that works for you so you don't forget your reusable bags. There are some models that fit in your purse so you'll always have them with you.

Here's what works for me: After I unpack my bags, I put them right in front of the door. Next time I go out, I put the bags on the front seat of my car. It looks a little messy, and of course I have to move them when TK and I are both in the car, but I always see them there and rarely forget to bring them in to the store!

Just keep an eye on your bagger or you might end up with this:



Why yes, that is all my groceries packed into about 10 plastic bags, that were then shoved into my reusable bags. I was distracted at the checkout by my kids, and didn't notice until I was taking my bags out of my cart to load into the car.

I figure the guy who packed them either didn't notice until the end that I had reusable bags, or really, really hates the environment.

I hope this never happens to me again, though I must admit, I found it somewhat hilarious to open up my reusable bags and just keep finding more and more plastic bags. It's like an environmentalist's nightmare! Luckily, I know where the local recycling drop off is for plastic bags :)

The parenting book of superlatives

Forget an instruction manual, new parents should be given a book of superlatives to study up for when they have preschoolers!

Here's how my day goes:
Kiddo 1 or 2: "Mommy, what is the biggest animal?"
Me: "The Blue Whale".
Kiddo 1 or 2: "Mommy, what's the biggest animal that isn't in the ocean?"
Me: "An elephant"
Kiddo 1 or 2: "What about dinosaurs?"
Me: "Well, dinosaurs are extinct. There are none that live on Earth anymore. But the biggest dinosaur was the Argentinosaurus."
Kiddo 1 or 2: "Was it bigger than a blue whale?"
Me: "Nope! The blue whale is the biggest ever!"
Kiddo 1 or 2: "What's the biggest fish in the ocean?"
Me: "The Whale Shark"
Kiddo 1 or 2: "It eats tiny food!"
Me: "Yep!" [Don't think we haven't read a number of books about whale sharks!]
Kiddo 1 or 2: "What's the biggest bird?"
Me: "An Ostrich"
Kiddo 1 or 2: "No, no, I mean a bird that can *fly*!"
Me: "Google to the rescue!" [Appears to be some type of albatross, if we're not including extinct birds]

Seriously, I'm going to know the "biggest" of everything! And I'm sure soon they'll be asking "smallest", too. I think I need to bust out a nature section of a Guinness Book of World Records...

Unintentional Best New Insult

Today N-man waved his magic wand and said to TK, "I turned you into a pink monkey ball".

Now, N-man was definitely thinking of a bouncy ball, but I don't care. This is my newest insult...you're a pink monkey ball! It works as an expletive, too: Pink Monkey Balls!

I'm ridiculously easily amused.

Perhaps this explains why they are so impatient...

Little Z-man was fussing as I was getting ready to feed him. B-man walked over and said, "Z-man, patience is a hurt-you".

VIRTUE, darlin'! Virtue! Though from your perspective, I'd guess being asked to be patient does sometimes seem to hurt you :)

It was kind of funny how B-man exactly matched my inflection. I guess I do tell them fairly frequently when they are being demanding that patience is a virtue...

Oh great, N-man jut streaked by, completely nekkid. I suspect they're going to take advantage of these times when I'm tied to the breastfeeding chair! Of course, what they don't know is that this is so easy with one baby instead of two that before long, I'll probably be wandering around during feedings (and forcing children to wear clothing!)

37w6d

Today I'm 37 weeks, 6 days pregnant. That's exactly how long I gestated the boys. I have two things to say for myself:

1) Damn, that's frickin' amazing that I didn't just camp out at the doctor's office and demand he remove those two children immediately. I've considered setting up camp already this time, and the only thing holding me back is the realization that I'm being a gigantic baby and to just suck it up because I only have half as many extra people inside me this time.

2) Thank goodness I made it this far. I would have been a little embarrassed if my now-OLD body couldn't make it at least as far with a singleton as it did with twins.

I'm actually getting worried that this little guy will make his appearance early. What were we thinking, moving 4 short days before the baby is due? How is this a good idea? Yes, I love our new house. Yes, in the long run it'll all be worth it. Yes, it doesn't even *really* matter if I have the baby now and miss all the move-related stuff. Well, that will make life much more interesting for TK (hmmm, honey? Do you mind handling two children, selling a house, buying a house, packing/moving/unpacking, a new baby and a wife in the hospital? That's not too much, is it?)

We're in the final crunch now, moving out of our current house in four days, moving into our new house in five days. We've done the vast majority of packing, and I use "we" very liberally, as I've done about five, maybe six boxes total. Mostly I sit on the couch having Braxton-hicks contractions while TK packs, packs, packs. Guess what's on the agenda today? Yep, more packing! (Though we should be mostly done by the end of today...microwaved food on paper plates or restaurants for the rest of the week as we only have the bare necessities out now!)

I'm not sure if I'll be updating my blog or not before the move/baby arrival. Funny to think that next time I blog, it might be from our new house and as a family of five! I should probably try to update, though, as I'm sure it will be hilarious to look back and see a record of the insanity :)

An odd twin moment

I've never seen much evidence of my boys being psychically linked. No crying when the other bumps his head, or completing each other's sentences.

But then we went to the doctor's office yesterday, and I learned you gotta watch out for these two!

Their doctor asked them, "what is your little brother going to be named?"

There was a pause, and then they both said in unison, with much certainty, "ZINK-O!"

We've never mentioned this name. They've never called the baby Zink-o before to me...they always just call him "Baby".

The doctor looked at me and said, "Really?" She did a great job keeping her voice neutral, with no sign of disapproval for what would obviously be a crazy name. But they'd clearly convinced her with their certainty, not to mention the fact that they BOTH said it at the same time.

I just couldn't stop laughing!

And for the record, while we're still struggling with a name, we did let the boys know there's zero chance of a little brother Zink-o.

Dr. Tact strikes again

When I was pregnant with the boys, my OB earned the nickname of "Dr. Tact". I know Ms. Goddess in Progress met him, and has some wonderful stories of her own about how he completely lacks any tact at all!

Anyway, that actually doesn't bother me, so I stuck with him for this pregnancy. And I've been surprised that he's not been overly un-tactful this time around. I was wondering if he took some kind of "be polite to patients" class in the past 4 years.

Until today.

We were scheduling my appointment for next week, and I said, "The nurse told me I'd need to come in for a non-stress test."

His response: "Oh yeah, because you're SO old."

Thanks. Thanks a lot.

So this elderly mom refrained from punching him in the nose. See, age brings restraint, so it's not all bad!

That Kind of Day

I was having THAT kind of day yesterday. You know the one. Where nothing goes right, though luckily, nothing is terrible. Just kind of blah.

TK was out for the evening at band practice, so I knew I was on solo kid duty through bed time. We had a zillion issues with the lawyers/house sale (STILL unresolved), so I was trapped all day at home waiting on phone calls and dealing with things. By the time dinner rolled around, I decided we needed some fun, so I took the kids for a walk to the Au Bon Pain about 1/4 mile away.

We got there, ordered, sat down. Everything's fine. We're having fun. Both boys wanted to sit next to me, so we were cuddled all on one side of a booth. It was pretty cute, and I was starting to relax. We wait for a while, the buzzer goes off, and I go get the food. Or I should say the boys' food. Turns out they're out of the chicken rice bowl I ordered. Again. How come every time I go there they're out of what I want to eat? And why can't they tell me when I order, or at least before I've waited with the boys for 10 minutes? It's not like they're busy in the evenings. There were only 2 or 3 other customers in the whole place while we were there!

Fine. I get something different (which for the record ended up being delicious!) I ate about half of it, but by then the boys had finished their drinks and were both complaining they were thirsty. Okay, easy enough to solve. I went up to the counter, got some little glasses, and got them some water.

I get back to the booth, and ask B-man to scoot out so that I can get back in between them. He puts his little hands on the table to push himself up to standing and....the whole booth tips over!

On to B-man and N-man.

And all our food falls off onto the seat.

Can you believe the entire table fell over because of my tiny little B-man? He wasn't doing anything crazy at all...I can't believe the table doesn't get knocked over ten times a day!

I picked the table up, and both boys were crying but seemed to be without serious injury. Both of them were more concerned about their food than anything else! Luckily, they had mac and cheese, and amazingly, both cups landed right side up and didn't spill a bit. So I moved them over to another table and that, combined with the awesome cups of water with ICE (their favorite!) in it calmed the boys right down.

But the tragedy is that my meal, my substitute dinner that ended up being delicious and that I'd only gotten to eat half of, had entirely spilled out of the bowl, all over the seat and floor.

Don't worry, I salvaged the situation. I went up and bought myself a huge chocolate pastry. Do I know how to solve a problem or what?

Planning breakdown

Me, in my mind: Oh, I have a good idea! I'll head to the farmstand after our CSA pickup!

Me, in my mind: I'd go to the farmstand first, but I need to buy perishables like milk and cheese. Better go to the CSA first.

Me, in my mind: It's kind of on the way home, anyway!

Me, in my mind: I'm always trying to find ways to combine errands to drive less, this'll be perfect!

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Me, in reality: Wow, the farm is really muddy.

Me, in reality: I don't know why I'm surprised. It's the first day in 10 weeks it hasn't rained.

Me, in reality: I even thought to bring their rain boots. I must have known it'd be muddy.

Me, in reality: Wow, the boys are getting really, really dirty. And wet.

N-man, in reality: Mommy, those kids just splashed through the puddle by me! I'm all covered in mud!

Me, in reality: Holy moly, he's got mud splashed EVERYWHERE on his body!

B-man, in reality: Mommy, my boot got stuck in the mud!

Me, in reality: And you stepped right in the puddle in only your sock, I see.

Me, in reality: I have to strip you guys before we get in the car.

Me, in reality: And I only have one extra outfit in the car.

Me, in reality: I can't go to the farmstand with naked kids, can I? It's really more like a small grocery store. Shoot, and their boots are really unwearable, since they got mud inside and out.

Me, in reality: Probably should have just gone to the farmstand this morning, huh.

So THAT'S my problem with the giant burning ball of horror in the sky!

I think I've avoided mentioning on my blog one of the many, many things that I know are crazy about me.

I don't like the sun.

I mean, I'm pro-sun in general. You know, life-giving energy and all. I don't want to build a giant underground complex or anything.

It's just, given a choice, I prefer overcast fall days to just about anything else. Grey, cloudy, 55 degrees is my idea of weather-perfection.

Anyone living in New England knows that this has been an ideal summer for me. How's the weather been? Cool. Rainy. WONDERFUL!

Though I must admit, I was feeling bad for the boys. Kids need summers to run around and play in the sandbox and go in the kiddie pool. We weren't getting to do any of that, so I'm glad the weather has finally improved.

We took them yesterday to a 4th of July carnival in a neighboring town (our lame town doesn't do anything for the Fourth!) Being a solar-phobic, I of course made sure we were all coated in sunscreen. And we were only out for about two and a half hours before my poor pregnant body just needed some air conditioning time to recoup.

We got home and you know what? I got a slight sunburn! I mean, not bad. In fact, it's already faded today to some new freckles on my arms. The stinging has subsided and the redness is gone. But still! I was hardly out very long! And I was wearing sunscreen! I wasn't in the water, and it wasn't so hot that I was sweating excessively. There was no reason my sunscreen should have given up the fight in less than 3 hours.

So I said to TK, "It's because the sunscreen is only SPF 30*".

He answered, "Really? I think it's because you almost entirely lack melanin in your skin."

Yeah, he's probably right.

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* Sunscreen issue of the day: We've been using Baby Lizard sunscreen. I love it! It's chemical- and fragrance-free, goes on smoothly and evenly, and doesn't leave you feeling sticky. My only issue is that it's only available as 30 SPF. Oh, it's pretty darn expensive, too, but I feel it's worth the added cost so I'm not going to complain about that.

But clearly, as yesterday proved, it's not quite as effective as I might desire. Does anyone have a sunscreen they love (preferably one not filled with chemicals)?

House update, again

For once I finally have an update! Our house finally got an offer! We managed to talk them up to the lowest possible amount we could afford to accept. Are we awesome negotiators or what?

Today is the home inspection. Wish us luck! I'm a little worried that there'll be something that ruins the deal. It could all still fall apart!

Though we found out yesterday that ANOTHER couple wants to put in an offer on our house. Our agent had warned their agent that she thought an offer would be coming in, and they were just too late and we'd already signed the offer agreement with the first couple. But if this current offer falls apart for some reason, the other couple will probably put in an offer (of course, who knows if it'll be a good offer or not, but after so long of nothing it's kind of amazing!)

The only bad part of the current offer is that this couple wants to close while I'm scheduled to be in the hospital delivering baby boy #3. Really? That's crazy! Our agent said not to worry about it, that she'd talk to them today at the home inspection. But the reality is that we'll probably be closing and the new baby will be born right about at the same time. I'm just desperately trying to make sure it's not on the same day, though I guess what will be will be. There's only so much I can control! I was hoping we could wait until after the baby arrives to close, but this couple really wants to close before the end of August, so now we're trying to push up the closing so we can be moved before the baby comes. Who knows, though. I do have a scheduled delivery date, but I think we all know that just means I know the last possible day the baby will come...he could decide to make an early entrance, though! Once more, proof that I can't control everything. Not for lack of trying, though.

So that's it. My kind of update. We'll see if anything actually happens...

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As a related question, has anyone ever had a lag between selling a house and buying a new house? Because in theory, we could close on our current house before the baby arrives, then close on the new house after the baby arrives. We'd have two options: move all our stuff out at closing, and have the moving company store it in their van while we live in an extended stay hotel*. Or, alternately, we could sell the house, then "rent" it back from the new owners for a week or two until we close on the new house.

*Actually, this would probably be if things really overlapped with us being in the hospital. In that case, my parents are already planning to be here, so we'd probably send them and the kids down to my grandparents' house about an hour away, and then TK and I would stay at the hospital the majority of the time, with a hotel for any time that didn't overlap with our hospital stay.

I'm hoping it won't come to this, but just wondering if anyone has ever done something like this where they couldn't get closing dates perfectly aligned. It's amazing house buy/sell transactions ever work out!

I knew all that cleaning was dangerous!

So, N-man got another concussion yesterday. He slipped on the wet kitchen floor and banged his head. We were getting ready for showing the house...one hour notice. On Father's Day. Right at dinner time. Convenient, right? Sorry, homemade Father's Day dinner was canceled!

We headed out to dinner instead. N-man wasn't in a great mood since his fall, but didn't seem too bad when we left the house. We got to the restaurant, and he broke down crying and grumping. TK walked around outside with him (in the rain!), but he didn't calm down, so we got our meals packed to go, drove around until the people were out of our house, and were going to eat at home. We finally got the call from our agent that they were done. N-man was whimpering in the backseat by then. We pulled into the garage and ACK! He vomited EVERYWHERE in the van.

I ran inside, called the emergency pediatrician line, and got new clothes for N-man. TK got everything vomit-related out of the van and onto the floor of the garage. (This is on Father's Day, remember? Do we know how to celebrate, or what?) We got N-man in clean clothes, threw the boys into TK's non-vomited on car, and headed to the ER.

Which was packed.

Full of sick people. Have I mentioned I have a touch of hypochondria? And germophobia? And there were sick people all around? I'm getting skeeved out just thinking of it. Last time we went to the ER, it was almost empty, giving us lots of space to stay away from other sickies. Not this time!

We waited, and waited, and waited, and weren't even being seen by the triage nurse or the check-in people. N-man was getting sleepy, I was getting really nervous. Then N-man threw up all over the floor and started shrieking.

Tip for getting seen immediately in the ER: throw up all over the floor and start shrieking.

My poor little guy! We were put back in a room pretty speedily after that. It was still a pretty long wait to see a doctor, but at least we were comfortable and away from all the sick people. And N-man finally started perking up and acting more like himself. By the time the doctor saw him, he was doing much better, and it had been over 4 hours since his head injury (the amount of time they usually like to observe them after a head bump). So they made him eat an ice pop, and since he could keep that down, we were released at 10pm.

The ER doctor wasn't even sure it was a concussion. He said it might have been a very coincidental virus or stomach upset that just happened to hit at exactly the same time as the head bump. That sounds crazy to me, except that N-man had been saying his tummy hurt even before the head bump. (I try not to spend too much time talking about potty stuff on my blog, but N-man has many issues with constipation so complaints about tummy pain are reasonably common here, which is why it didn't register as possibly related to the vomiting). I still suspect it was a concussion since it was so similar to what happened last time, but luckily it was minor enough that we can't even be sure that's what happened.

This morning N-man seems fine. He's eating, running around, playing normally. I'm worn out by the whole thing.

Two more house showings today. Of course right at dinner time. I'm NOT washing the kitchen floor.

An unexpected insult from a children's book!

I must start with a notice that this post is far naughtier than my usual offerings. You're intrigued now, aren't you? Well, don't say I didn't warn you about a rated R post!

So, this all starts with a book the boys just got as a hand-me-down from their cousin. It's called Mix and Match Villains. It's one of those book where each page is split into thirds and you can mix and match the pictures and words, creating new and often funny composite villains and nonsensical sentences.

B-man is especially diverted by this book, and since he's a touch OCD, he's intent on making his way through every possible combination. "Mommy, read this one!" "Mommy, read this one!" I hear this all day now. It was getting a little annoying, to tell the truth, until he presented me with the following:




I tried my best to keep a straight face, but I must say I lost my battle and laughed for about 10 minutes. And then decided I had to share it with you all. Have I mentioned I have the sense of humor of a 14 year old boy?

I'm sorry, give me a minute. I'm cracking up again. Just look at Alice...doesn't she look terribly insulted and embarrassed? She should be! But I think pink-flamingo-croquet-dude is pretty amused by mix-and-match Jafar/Frollo/The Queen of Hearts, at their shocking over-share here!

And *this* makes my Monday!